How to write your personal statement
Making your case well can be the difference between getting an offer or not
The dos and don'ts for the part of the Ucas application process that causes students and parents the most angst
Writing 47 lines of text or 4,000 characters about yourself can be daunting. What do you leave out? Even worse, what if you haven’t got enough to say? The starting point of all personal statements should be to explain why you’ve applied for this particular course and why you should be offered a place. This is the only part of your application you have control over and it’s your opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
If you and another candidate have identical qualifications, your story could secure you an interview or even a spot on your dream course, especially if you just miss out on your required grades on results day.
“You never know when it might make that critical difference,” says Liz Hough, assistant director and head of admissions at the University of Warwick, which receives about 40,000 applications a year for 5,000 places. “It is absolutely critical that [prospective students] seek to do a good job with it. It wouldn’t be in any applicant’s interest not to do so.”
The personal statement also serves to show you are prepared for the depth and breadth of a university degree. The bulk of it needs to be focused on academic, social or cultural interests related to your course, showcasing both your ability to research and your passion for your subject (without using the word “passion”, please).
Do your homework on your chosen degree carefully before you start writing, advises Melissa Nurcombe, director of marketing, recruitment, admissions and outreach at the University of York. “There is nothing worse than getting an application talking about something you love in history that isn’t a part of the course.”
Admissions tutors want to see evidence of commitment to your subject beyond the curriculum.
Jane Marshall, director of Optimising Futures, says the most common gap in a weak statement is where a student hasn’t bothered to build up any evidence of their interest in the subject outside what they have studied in their course at school or college.
Marshall spent almost 19 years working with admissions tutors at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Imperial College London and now works with 100 schools, mostly in the state sector. She also has a role at Imperial’s summer school, giving advice on the art of creating an effective personal statement.
She recalls one rejected application for a joint degree in economics and mathematics at LSE: “They put in one sentence about maths. It is a joint honours degree; it should be 50/50. In terms of what they put in about economics, it was just a few personal opinions on the economy, there was nothing concrete, there were no books, no articles, no podcasts, nothing to demonstrate that this student had an interest in the subject.”
However, admissions tutors don’t want people simply to list books they have read or things they have done. “We get statements from applicants who have had some very impressive opportunities, internships or working in a prestigious firm, and they just name-drop it in; they don’t really reflect on what it has taught them,” says Hough. “You are almost better off not mentioning it. It is what you can say about your experiences that matters,” she adds.
Getting started is probably the trickiest part, says Hough. “Ignore your opening line until you have the bulk of your argument sorted and polished. You have to do that work of crafting the argument, that process of refining over a few weeks, letting your ideas distil, figuring who you really are in relation to the subject and why you want to study it.”
Use the last paragraph to reveal a bit about you as a person, your hobbies and interests and what you can contribute in your time at university.
Common pitfalls to avoid include repetition, generic statements and clichés. “Ever since I was two years old I wanted to be a doctor” doesn’t wash, and neither are admissions tutors impressed by flowery language that can ruin the flow. So don’t go mad with the thesaurus.
Less is also more when it comes to quotations. “I had a young man who used nine,” says Marshall. “If you have to use a quote, explain why it is there, what inspired you about it, who said it in the first place and make sure it is accurate. The amount of times I have read inaccurate quotations …”
Pay close attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation. Students should expect to make several drafts and get their personal statement checked by teachers, friends and family.
Finally, don’t be tempted to copy someone else’s work. All statements are checked for plagiarism by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas). “It needs to be personal; it needs to be full of evidence and most of all it needs to be yours,” says Courteney Sheppard, senior customer success manager at Ucas.
Do
● Take it seriously and be sure to give it everything you’ve got
● Be enthusiastic and outline your ideas clearly
● Expect to write several drafts before you are happy with it
● Relate it to your academic journey and read beyond your subject
● Follow an academic on Twitter or a podcast and research course modules to build up evidence of your interest
● Check for grammar, spelling and punctuation errors
Don’t
● Point out things you haven’t done
● Exaggerate
● Copy anyone else’s statement — they are all checked for plagiarism
● Leave it to the last minute — it will look rushed and you may miss out important information
● Worry if you get writer’s block. There’s lots of help and support out there.
● A good first port of call would be ucas.com and check out university websites for further tips and guidance